A Simpler Start

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about endings and what we’re left with when all is said and done. The biggest example would be high school coming to its culmination. Within that example, I think I’ve begun to understand what’s truly valuable throughout these four years. My realization that grades aren’t everything came earlier but I think it was only recently that I understood the opposite end - if grades don’t matter, what does? Experiences, relationships, and universal skills that carry beyond a transcript. As my convoluted mind would have it then, I tackled other things with the same question - when all is complete, what are the prominent things left - what will endure the test of time?

As far as my current EMC project goes, this alarmed me a bit. The first thing I decided with near certainty was that it probably won't be my results section, or even thesis paper (the process, yes. but the paper will likely become a distant memory). I wondered, if this won’t last, why have I put myself in a position where I feel like that's the only thing I have? But that’s too forward and wrong a question. Here’s a simpler start - within this thesis-writing process, what can I extract? Surely, this work isn’t useless. I keep saying I don’t know how to connect other people with my subject matter but maybe I've been searching for my answer in the wrong place and using the wrong questions. (248)